Northern Israel hit by projectile fired from Lebanon: army

ISRAEL has retaliated after militants launched rockets at a petrol station, and Lebanon also fired a missile at Israel today as tensions build on the Gaza strip.

A rocket fired from Gaza hit a petrol station in southern Israel, causing a huge explosion and injuring three people, the army and medics said.

“A barrage of rockets was fired at Ashdod, one of which hit a gas station causing massive damage,” a statement from the army said.

Medics said three people had been taken to hospital, including one who was very seriously hurt.

“Three people were injured, one very seriously,” emergency services spokesman Eli Bin told public radio of the incident, which occurred in the southern port city of Ashdod, 28 kilometres (17 miles) north of Gaza.

A large fire was raging at the site, with emergency teams trying to control the blaze, medics said

The military wing of Hamas took credit for firing what it said was a R-160 missile at Israel’s largest city in the north of the country.

The latest attack comes as a projectile fired from Lebanon also struck northern Israel today causing no harm or damages, the Israeli army said.

“One projectile hit an open space near Kfar Yuval, between (northern Israeli towns) Metula and Kiryat Shmona,” a military spokeswoman told AFP, adding the army did not yet know whether it was a mortar shell or a rocket.

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner confirmed the projectile struck near Israel’s northern border. The military responded with artillery fire toward the source in Lebanon.

He said it was unclear whether the new front was “symbolic or something more substantial.”

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said two rockets were fired from the country.

It comes as Israeli warplanes kept up deadly raids on Gaza today but failed to stop Palestinian militants firing rockets across the border, as the United States offered to help negotiate a truce.

Out of control ... firemen extinguish a fire caused by a rocket fired from the Gaza strip, hitting the city of Ashdod.Source:AFP

Israeli air strikes killed more than 30 Palestinians on Thursday alone, many of them women and children.

Hamas, the Palestinian group ruling Gaza, also appeared to have no interest in letting up, striking deep inside Israel over the past 48 hours, with rockets crashing down near Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and even as far away as Hadera, 116km to the north.

Senior Hamas member and the movement’s former Gaza prime minister Ismail Haniya ruled out any backing down by the Islamist movement.

“The enemy (Israel) is the one that started this aggression and it must stop, because we are (simply) defending ourselves,” Haniya said in a statement early Friday.

It comes as Israel intensified its bombardment on Thursday of the Gaza strip in an offensive against the Hamas militant group, with more than 900 targets attacked so far.

It said it was doing everything possible to avoid civilian casualties in the crowded urban landscape.

Wiped out ... Canadian chief project of peace activist boat "Gaza's Ark" checks damages to his burnt boat following an Israeli air strike during the night in the Gaza harbour, in Gaza City.Source:AFP

The risk of more civilian deaths will remain high, especially if Israel moves in with ground forces.

More than 95 people have been killed, including dozens of civilians, and more than 300 wounded since the offensive began on Tuesday, Palestinian medical officials said.

Israel has called up 30,000 reservists as politicians threaten a new ground offensive into the besieged Palestinian territories “within hours”.

Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas said in a televised broadcast that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will launch a crushing ground operation in Gaza “within hours.”

Undeterred, Hamas militants have fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, including salvos on Thursday at the country’s two largest cities, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, that were intercepted by the rocket-defence system known as the Iron Dome.

Since the start of the operation, Gaza militants have fired 407 mortars and rockets that struck Israel, while another 118 rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome, an army spokeswoman said

Reprisal raid ... Palestinians search in the rubble of a destroyed house where eight members of the Al Haj family were killed in a strike ein Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza strip, yesterday.Source:AP

President Barack Obama called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and lent his support to Israel’s efforts to defend itself from the rocket fire, but he also urged both Israel and the Palestinians to protect civilians and restore calm.

The White House said the U.S. was willing to “facilitate a cessation of hostilities,’’ potentially along the lines of a 2012 ceasefire that Egypt and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton helped broker.

But Israel appeared bent on dealing a fatal blow to the Islamist movement Hamas, which controls Gaza, with Netanyahu reportedly saying talk of a ceasefire was “not even on the agenda”.

At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed deep concern about the threats to civilians in Israel and Gaza, and urged an immediate ceasefire.

Sudden impact ... Flames erupt from a building hit by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City. Israeli warplanes have been pounding the city in a major new confrontation with Palestinian militants, as Hamas flexed its firepower and sent thousands running for shelters across the country.Source:AFP

“It is unacceptable for citizens on both sides to permanently live in fear of the next attack,’’ Ban said.

“My paramount concern is the safety and wellbeing of all civilians, no matter where they are.’’

He condemned the “indiscriminate” rocket fire at Israel.

“But I am also concerned at the many Palestinian deaths and injuries as a result of Israeli operations,” he said.

Three Iron Dome rockets ... explode after being launched from the Gaza strip by Palestinians militants, as seen from the Israel Gaza border, southern Israel. Picture: Lefteris PitarakisSource:AP

Israel’s UN ambassador, Ron Prosor, pulled out a cellphone during the meeting and played a recording of an air-raid siren as he described the difficult circumstances of people living within rocket range.

A picture taken from the southern Israeli Gaza border shows smoke billowing from buildings following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City, on July 10. Pic: JACK GUEZSource:AFP

Ban has been a key player in diplomatic efforts to halt the hostilities.

Egypt, historically a mediator between Israel and the Palestinians, has said it is in touch with both sides.

Neither side has shown much interest in halting the fighting.

With rockets continuing to fly, Israel has been massing forces along the Gaza border in preparation for a possible ground invasion.

Hamas new rocket range

“So far the campaign is going as planned,” Netanyahu said in a statement broadcast on national television.

“But we are expecting more stages later. So far we have severely hit Hamas and other terrorists and we will deepen the strike against them as long as the campaign continues.”

Losing loved ones ... Palestinians carry a body, a member of the Ghanam family, after being removed from under the rubble of their home following an Israeli air raid on Rafah, in the southern of Gaza strip. Picture: SAID KHATIBSource:AFP

He said Israel was making “every effort” to avoid harming civilians and accused Hamas of endangering the Palestinian public by “hiding behind Palestinian civilians.”

Residents in the crowded Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza were at a loss to explain why the Al Haj family home was targeted last night.

The blast killed Mahmoud Al Haj, his wife, Basmah, and six of their children.

Yasser Al Haj, who was not at home in the refugee camp, was the only relative to survive.

“I want to see my family,” he wailed.

“Where is the house? Where is my family?”

Neighbour Iyad Hamad decried the deaths of “children, women and old people.”

“There can’t be more oppression than this in the world,” he said.

“Can’t they see what is happening to the people here?”

Shot in the dark ... Israeli firefighters extinguish a burning factory hit by an unguided rocket fired from the Gaza strip at an industrial zone in the southern city of Sderot.Source:AFP

It was not clear who was the target of the air strike, or whether the family had been warned.

Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, said the incident was under investigation.

Israel has been taking precautions to protect civilians.

He said when Israel identifies a home used by Hamas as a “command and control centre,” it calls the inhabitants and orders them to leave. It then fires a “non-explosive munition” at the roof as a warning and looks for people to leave. Only then does it destroy the structure.

But he said if a militant is actively using a house to carry out attacks, he becomes a legitimate target.

“If you use civilian premises to perpetrate attacks, you are putting yourself and the people around you in a state of danger,” Lerner said.

Eternal struggle ... A Palestinian youth ducks during clashes with Israeli soldiers at the gates of the Beit El Jewish settlement in the Israel occupied West Bank near Ramallah.Source:AFP

Israel uses electronic surveillance, a network of informants and other techniques to keep tabs on wanted militants in Gaza. It has a long history of killing senior militants in air strikes. But mistakes can happen.

Robbie Sabel, a former legal adviser for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, said international laws of war prohibit deliberate targeting of civilians, but take into account that civilians may be hit in attacks on military targets as long as the response is “proportionate.” Beyond the legal issues, however, is the matter of public perception.

“The moment you see a picture in The New York Times of an injured child, it’s horrific. And there’s no way you can come up with a legal explanation that will help us,” he said.

The number of civilian casualties is sure to rise if Israel decides to launch a ground invasion. During a ground incursion in early 2009, hundreds of civilians were killed. Israel accused Hamas of putting people in harm’s way, but the heavy death toll drew war crimes accusations against Israel in a U.N. report.

Nowhere to hide ... A Palestinian woman looks from a balcony at the wreckage left by an Israeli air strike, killing three people and wounding four others in Gaza City.Source:AFP

The report also accused Hamas of committing war crimes by firing indiscriminately at Israeli population centres. The current wave of rocket fire has placed an estimated 5 million Israelis in range, disrupting life across the country.

In southern Israel, the area hit hardest by the rockets, people have been ordered to stay within close range of shelter. Summer camps have been cancelled, motorists have been forced to jump out of their cars, and high school students took their final exams in bomb shelters. Many people are using a smartphone application that alerts them to incoming rockets when they can’t hear air-raid sirens.

Lian Assayag had planned a big wedding in the southern city of Ashkelon. But her special day was dashed due to the rocket fire. She decided instead to get married on Thursday night inside a bomb shelter at a synagogue in nearby Ashdod.